Recent days have brought two new announcements to light that I’m pretty excited about.
 
The first is the announcement of a new “renewal” version of the Ultra-Act Ultraseven. While Ultraman is fairly well known to even the most casual pop culture observer, Ultraseven’s eponymous series is actually more fondly remembered in Japan. Bandai has been revisiting the Ultra-Act line to produce newer, better versions of figures they’ve done before, and having done Ultraman, Ultraseven is next on the list. I’ve been watching the series (Amazon) and so far, I have to admit I think Ultraman (Amazon) was a more entertaining show, but I’m only about a third of the way through Ultraseven.
Next up is the next S.H.MonsterArts figure: Kiryu, a.k.a. Mechagodzilla III.
This one’s a bit of a surprise. Kiryu already had a pretty good Soul of Chogokin figure about ten years ago. I’d been wondering if Bandai would be reluctant to revisit these characters for S.H.MonsterArts for that reason – I guess this answers that question.
The SHMA version will likely be slightly shorter, better articulated, and feature a bit less diecast material than the SOC figure. I never got the SOC one and it goes for big bucks on eBay these days, so I’m more than happy to spend my money (looks like it’ll be about $100) on this version. Kiryu is my second-favorite Mechagodzilla design, so I’m psyched about this reveal. Now all we need is a Kiryugoji (the Godzilla suit from this movie, soon to star in IDW’s Godzilla: Rulers of Earth) to go with him.
I had hoped the next SHMA reveal would be a 1964 Mothra, but with this character, Bandai has shown they’re going to produce figures from all eras.
